The Bossier banner., 1887-08-11

MN, Io0ktn2 up IN tue lace Oh HIS eXoCu-
toner. and. as the grim official draws the
sword, Paul calmly says:
am now ready to be offered and the time Of
my departure Is at hand.
But put my hand over my eyes.
want not to see that last struggle. One
sharp, keen stroke, and Paul does 60 to
the banquet, oand Paul does dine with the
King.
What transition it wasi From the
malaria of Rome to the finest climate in
the universe-the zone of eternal beauty
and health. His ashes were put into the
catacombs of Rome, but in one moment
the air of Heaven bathed from his soul the
last ache. From shipwreck, from dungeon,
from the biting pain of the elmwood
rods, from the sharp sword of the heads
man, he goes into the most brilliant as
semblage OF Heaven, King among
Kings, multitudes Of the sainthood rush
ing out ::and stretching forth hands of
welcome; for l do really think that as on
the right hand of God is Christ so on the
right hand of Christ Is Paul, the second
great in Heaven.
He changed kings likewise. Before the
hour Of death, and up to the last moment,
he was under Nero, the thick-necked, the
cruel-eyed, the flthy-lipped, the sculp-
tured features Of that man bringing
down to us to this very day the horrible
possibilities of his nature-seated as he
was amidst pictured marbles of Egypt,
under a roof adorned with mother-of-
pearl, in a dining-r room which, by ma
chinery, was kept whirling day and night
with most bewitching magnifcence, his
horses standing in stalls Of solid gold,
and the ground around his palace lighted
at night by his victims, who had been
daubed with tar and pitch and then set on
fire to illuminate the darkness. That was
Paul's king But the next moment he
goes in to the realm of him whose reign is
love, and whose courts are paved with
love, and whose throne is set on
pillars Of love, and whose scepter
is adorned with jewels of love and
whose palace is lighted with love, and
whose lifetime is an eternity of love.
When Paul was leaving so much on this
side the pillar Of martyrdom to gain SO
much on the other side, do you wonder at
the cheerful valedictorv of the text:
The time of my departure is at hand.
Now, why can not all the old people of
this congregation have the same holy
glee as that aged man hads Charles L.,
when he was combing his head, found a
gray hair, and he sent it to the Queen as a
great joke; but old age is really no joke
at all. For the last forty years you have
been dreading that which ought to have
been an exhilaratlon. You say you most
fear the struggle at the moment the soul
and body part. But millions have endured
that moment and why not we as we'll
They got through with it, aud so can we.
Beside this, all medical men agree in say.
ing that there is probably no struggle at
all at the last moment-not so much pain
as the prick of a pin, the seeming signs of
distress being altogether involuntary.
But you say:
sit is the uncertainty of the future"
Now, child of God, do not play the infideL
After God has filled the Bible till it can
things ahead, better not talk about uncer-
tainties. Butyou say:
81 can not bear to think of parting from
friends here.'
If you are old you have more friends in
Take some large sheet of paper and begin
| to record the names of those who have
| emigrated to the other shore-the com.
panions Of your school days, your early
business associates, the friends of middle
life, and those who m ore recently went
| away.
| Can it be that they have been gone SC
| long you do not care any more about
them, and you do not want their society
Oh, mol There have been days when you
have felt that you could not en-
dure it another moment away froLl
their blessed companionship. They have
| gone You say you would not like Il
bring them back to this world of trouble
even if you had the power. 1t would ncd
| do to trust you. God would not give you
resurrection power. Before tomorrow
morning you would be rattling at the
| gates of the cemetery, crying to the de
parted:
/ "Come back to the cradle where YOU
| sleptl como back to the hall where yor
used to playl come back to the table
| where you used to sitp' and there would
be great burglary in Heaven. No, no
God will not trust you with resurrection
power, but he compromises the matter
and says:
"You can not bring them where yor
are, but you can go where they are'
They are more lovely now than ever
| Were they beautiful here, they are more
beautiful there.
Beside that, it is more healthy there fol
you IMAM mere, aged man; better climate
there than these hot summers and cole
winters and late springs; better hearing
better eye-sight; more tonic in the air
more perfume in the bloom; more sweet
ness in the song. Do you not feel, tagged
man, sometimes, as though you woulc
like to get your arm and foot freel Dt
you not feel as though you would like tt
throw away spectacles and canes and
crutchesi Would you not like to feel thu
spring and elasticity and mirth of al
eternal boyhoodi When the point a
which you start from this world is oil
| age, and the point to which you go i.
eternal juvenescence. aged man, ella,
your hands at the anticipation, and say ii
perfect rapture of soul:
The time OF my departure is at hand.
remark. again, all these ought to fee
this joy of the text who have q hol,
curiosity to know what is beyond this
earthly terminus. And who has not any
curiosity about ita Paul. I suppose, hat
the most satisfactory view Of Heaven, an6
he says:
''It doth not yet appear what we shal
be.n
II is like looking through broke,
k4t